Donnelly's new bill may restore hunting dog privileges

Monday

Mar 11, 2013 at 5:08 PMMar 27, 2013 at 7:49 AM

LYNNEA LOMBARDO, Staff Writer

VICTORVILLE • A bill that banned hunters from working with hounds to pursue bears and bobcats may be repealed if Assemblyman Tim Donnelly's new bill gets approved by the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife.

The bill, entitled AB 1230, would repeal SB 1221, which banned the use of hunting dogs in California last year but exempted government from the new law, according to a news release from Donnelly's office.

"Dedicated citizens came out to oppose the hypocritical and purposeless government ban imposed by SB 1221 last year," Donnelly said in the release. "They were ignored. I am excited to give their voice another chance to be heard. AB 1230 will reverse the intrusive and harmful policy passed last year and restore the simple freedom our citizens enjoyed just months ago, to go hunting, safely, with their dogs."

The release states that during discussion of SB 1221, many hunters expressed concern that bears that would normally be let go would now be shot. Dogs can pick up the scent of pregnant bears; if a dog indicated that a bear was pregnant, the dog could be freed.

Harold Horner, owner of Ultimate Game Birds Guide Service in Victorville, said that his business uses different types of dogs to assist local hunters in catching game fowl in the Western Mojave.

Although Horner's dogs are trained to retrieve birds, not bears, he said that the government will try to eliminate the bear hunters first, then the wild hog hunters, then the game fowl hunters by slowly taking away their ability to use dogs.

"It's actually more humane and ethical to use dogs," Horner said, explaining that when a hunter "cripples" a bird, the bird is more likely to cly away without a dog to catch it.

Horner said that in California, game fowl hunters can only catch up to 10 birds a day.

"If a hunter cripples 10 birds, and three get away, he'll only have seven in his possession," Horner said. "So he will keep shooting until he catches 10 total, but he actually crippled 13 birds. But if he uses a dog, he would have only crippled and retrieved 10."

Horner said that most hunters are conservationists and want nothing more than to see wildlife levels stay abundant and in balance.

Lynnea Lombardo may be reached at (760) 951-6232 or at LLombardo@VVDailyPress.com.

Get complete stories every day with the "exactly as printed" Daily Press E-edition, only $5 per month! Click here to try it free for 7 days. To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call (760) 241-7755, 1-800-553-2006 or click here.